The SitePoint Forums have moved.

You can now find them here.
This forum is now closed to new posts, but you can browse existing content.
You can find out more information about the move and how to open a new account (if necessary) here.
If you get stuck you can get support by emailing forums@sitepoint.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Displaying site thumbnails that are updated

Its pretty easy to see both what I want to do and the problem I am having here.

I would like to have an updated snapshot of my clients websites displayed next to their link. Nothing fancy but I figure its a nice visual effect that I dont have to maintain .. if I could only find a place that keeps the thumbs updated with any reasonable efficiency.

There may be some sort of automatic screenshot service out there but I doubt there'd be one for free. One way to get around it is to just post screenshots of small sections of the screen at 100% size so you only ever see a small portion of the page that never changes. That's what I do for my portfolio.

There are services out there that do it, but they arent automatic, you have to log in to use them (with human-sensing forms) and they cost money.

There are no custom scripts to do it, because its more that that...for it to be automated you pretty much need a *nix machine running X (the graphics system) and a browser that never moves, then the script could direct the browser and screenshot its contents...

Again though, not cost effective...its really a better idea to do it manually, it isnt that much work, and you can make sure the screenshot is logical and shows off the best part of the site, not just a zoomed out overview...

I would like to have an updated snapshot of my clients websites displayed next to their link. Nothing fancy but I figure its a nice visual effect that I dont have to maintain .. if I could only find a place that keeps the thumbs updated with any reasonable efficiency.

Never heard of one.
You may not want to do that. You might get a snapshot of a website when it is down